Rescue
by Timevamp
Summary: River is captured by Madame Kovarian from a fake hotel trap. Only one man can save her now... (rated k plus for moderate violence)


Rescue

River

River walked around another marble hall. The time passed quickly as she paced down endless corridors with sharp corners and the rooms had a strange feel to them. At the moment, she was just passing them aimlessly, not understanding what their purpose was for.

The corridor cleared into an open space. It was basically the same but had three pillars stuck into its centre. Built into the walls were 3 elevators and opposite them were large stairs. River took a breath out and slid down the wall. She closed her eyes and breathed out heavily. Today had been a crap day as it was, she didn't need to get lost in an endless maze of hotel corridors. Memories played like a tape in we head. They were all of one person in particular. And that was the doctor.

Doctor

The doctor was laying under the TARDIS console , fiddling with odd cables and fixing faults. Clara walked in after a very long explore about the library. 'Doctor, what are you doing.'

'Being useful and trying to fix the chameleon circuit,' he said with his sonic in his mouth.

'The what circuit?'

'When i first had the TARDIS, she had a setting called the chameleon circuit. It enables her to transform into anything in the universe.'

'Cool, so why the police box?'

'She landed in England in 1963 and unfortunately that day, it broke.'

'You mean it got stuck.'

'Well, yes. But it doesn't matter.'

'Why are you fixing it.'

'Im bored and besides, it's a cool feature.'

'When your bored you go on adventures, unless your not bored,' she eyed him suspiciously. He stayed silent and kept twiddling with the parts of the TARDIS. Clara walked away still not taking her eyes away from him. There was only one thing on his mind at that moment. And that was river.

River

River was so bored. These rooms had to be empty right? There was no one else around. She spied a window at the corner of the room but as she flung them open she just saw black. It wasn't black sky, it was a sheet of metal painted to look like it was night.

'Thats stupid,' she thought.

Then she went to the doors. To her relief, they were rooms. She looked in all of them. They were all empty. It was boring inside. There was two single beds and a tv on a desk. There was balcony doors on the end. She tried to open them but they were locked. She collapsed on the bed in a heap. 'My love what are you up to.'

Doctor

'Aww come on!' The doctor cursed as he finally found the fault in the chameleon circuit. The plug was knackered. They won't sell anymore of those anywhere. He rolled out from under the console. He decided to do something else to pass the loneliness of being without his wife. He fiddled with his pockets. It's amazing what was in there. Half a jammy dodger, tickets to a concert that he forgot to show to someone. Those tickets were quite important actually, he meant to keep them. He slid them onto the console. Then a photo fell onto the floor, he picked it up eagerly. He smiled a sad smile as he saw the picture printed perfectly. 'River...' He smiled. He let a tear fall onto the photo. It was of them. Their faces together. She was as stunning as always, but he remembered this was the last time they'd meet before she died. Darillium. It burned a whole through his chest. He leaned down and kissed the print of her head gently. He saw that taped to the back was the negatives. He spent a while looking at them. Analysing them from every angle. There were ones when she hugged him, his hat was in her head, he kissed her cheek, or kissed her lips. Another tear escaped his eye. 'Doctor?' Clara had noticed him clutching to the photos. He ignored her completely. 'My love , what are you up to?'

River

There was a knock outside the door. River sprang to her feet. She was not alone.

'Hello?' She asked craning her head around the door to see the entire room.

'River?'

'Doctor?' River was astonished. There he was, the doctor staring at her from the other side of the room. 'Doctor, it's me.'

'I know it's you.' He looked panicked and Stressed. He swooned to the one side and held in to the marble structures for balance. 'River...' He gulped.

'What?'she grabbed his shirt tightly.

'Im sorry,' and he melted into white liquid onto the floor. 'Doctor!' She screamed. She was suddenly pulled back by something. Or someone. 'Melody...' A eerie voice called

'Doctor!' She screamed again. Tears ran down her eyes and a cleric jabbed a sedative into her arm.

Doctor

The doctor was standing silently by the console, Clara slowly drifted around him. He fiddled with the scanner, worryingly.

'Whats up?' Clara questioned. There was a loud beep and the TARDIS sent a message to the doctor. It read

'River is in trouble, go to find her.'

He snapped into action. There were co ordinates at the bottom of the screen and he went to put them in. But he stopped. Clara stood behind him biting her nails. 'Im going to drop you back off to your house.'

'Why?'

'Somethings come up.'

'Like...'

'Something, okay,' he was clearly stressed 'here we go.' The TARDIS parked on her drive. 'This is about river isn't it.'

'Yes.'

'You do know I could help.'

'You could but I have to do this alone.'

'Do what alone.'

'Someone has taken river, for more than the first time in her life. And they have to pay.'

'Don't get too violent okay,' she told him. He nodded. Clara left the TARDIS with a sigh. That man.

Back in the console room, the doctor was heading to his destination. A cold iced planet at the edge if the solar system. 'Im sorry, Madame Kovarian, but this time you've over done it.'

River

Her eyes prised open. The whit light coming from above her was really bright and she had to squint for her eyes to adjust. 'Melody Pond... How long it's been,' Madame Kovarian floated over to her. 'Your to late, the doctor has already been to trenzalore.'

'Shame,' she frowned 'now there's no reason to kill him. River tried to move but noticed she was chained to a wall. Her clothes had been changed and she was now wearing a white nightie.

'What are you going to do with me?' River snarled.

'Make you suffer.'

'Why?'

'Because your so cliché,' she chuckled 'you married the man you were meant to murder.'

'Because, I love him.'

Madame kovarian smiled and then frowned. She was clearly not impressed by rivers choice of words. Two silence came into the room. River tried to escape her shackles. Kovarian grinned evilly. 'Suffering includes all means of torture and never ending pain. Internally and externally,' she walked over to her and pulled her hair 'this will make the doctor feel so ashamed that he didn't die. If he'd died none of this would've ever happened. So long, melody pond.'

She strode to the door and with a cackle, a group of guards came in and began to swarm around her. River screamed at the top of her lungs.

Doctor

The TARDIS landed on a frosted plain. It was cold outside so he decided to take a bobble hat to keep himself warm. He liked bobble hats , bobble hats were cool. He strode out onto the frosty grass, stuffing his bare hands into his pockets. He saw a large Ice castle. Madame Kovarian was a cold blooded thing. Not a lady a thing. 'How ironic!' He thought. He spotted silents outside a great oak door. He whipped a pen out of his pocket and marked 4 lines onto his arm. 'Im not forgetting you in a hurry,' he thought. He paced around the TARDIS. Well it might be the TARDIS. He'd put the outer shell on invisible. He was very glad in a way. Not in another. A plan clicked into his head. 'I can't get past those ... Um,' he lifted his arm to check 'silents! Yes silents! I can't get past the silence so ill have to track her from the inside.

20 minutes later he was listening at a door covered in ice. 'Come on melody, tell us where he is.'

'Never...' She sobbed and then screamed again.

'Come on melody tell us,' a different voice spoke. She screamed again this time louder and more painfully.

'Please, stop it,' she begged between sobs, only to inflict more screaming from herself.

'Thats enough for today,' a females voice told them.

The tallest man kicked river in the face and rendered her unconscious. They left the room chatting amongst themselves.

'Did you see what we did to her?'

'That was priceless man.'

'I hop the doctor finds her cos when he does. He'll probably kill himself.' They both laughed and turned the corner.

Laying flat on the floor was river. Her body limp and bruised. Her golden skin was covered I them along with bruises and cuts, not to mention blood. He lay beside her stroking her face. At a normal time she would've let a tear slip or snuggled into his hand. But she wasn't even moving. He shook her lightly and then began to panic when she still didn't respond. 'Don't worry, timelord. She's not dead,' a voice soaked with evil told him.

'I wouldn't be smiling if I was you.' He stood up.

'And finally he comes to save his precious river.'

There was a stir from river and she reached out her hand to the doctors leg. 'Doctor...'

'Oh little ones awake,' Kovarian walked to river and kicked her in the side, where her flesh was exposed. She cried with pain as she kicked her again only this time in her shins. 'Don't touch her again or i will make you suffer,'he glared at her fiercely.

'Brave soldier, but still rather stupid.'

He walked over to her and gritted his teeth. He wanted to slap the smile right of her face. So he did. She laughed hard lifting her head up again, expecting to get hit again. But he was gone. He'd hoisted up river and taken her to the TARDIS. Her plan had failed. It had failed before it had even begun.

River and the doctor

'River...river?' A voice whispered down to her. Her husband laid next to her. He gently caressed her cheek with his fingers. Her bottom lip quivered and she began to sob. 'Hey, hey...' He held her close 'I'm here. No one is going to hurt you.'

'It hurts all over doctor. She said she'd make me suffer and she did.

She said she would make me hurt and she did. It still hurts.'

'It's okay river,' he pulled the quilt off her body. It was the first time he'd properly looked at her cuts and they were worse that shed thought. On her left arm was a sentence inscribed with a knife. 'He's not coming for you.' And below it read 'he doesn't love you.' They were fresh cuts and he guessed they were from just before he rescued her.

She held fistfuls of his shirt, sobbing uncontrollably. 'River I love you , just know that.'

'I ... Love ... You ... Too,' she spoke between sobs.

'Shall we get you cleaned up?'

She nodded and he helped her too her feet. She wobbled and fell into his arms. He hoisted her up and carried her in his arms to the grandest bathroom in the TARDIS. The one in his bedroom was way too small. She needed the room. The TARDIS guided them there quickly. She wanted the least amount of pain as possible.

The doctor rested her on a seat in the corner of the room. She shivered uncontrollably so he unbuttoned his waistcoat and shirt. He draped the white cloth around her shoulders, so that she was covered. She held it to her face. The smell of the clothes reminded her of him. His arms around her, his lips against hers. The bath was filling with hit water and soap suds. She clenched onto his hand as he helped over to the giant bowl of warmth. He took his shirt and the rags that clung to her, off. He helped her into the large bath. She wouldn't let go of his hand. 'Would you like me to come in with you?' he asked. She nodded and he slid in next to her. She buried her head in his shoulder and he could feel her warm breath caressing his neck. 'Do you want me to help?' He asked her as she tried to tip the water over her head. She nodded again. He grabbed a glass and filled it with water. He gently helped to wash her hair.

He jumped out and got himself and her a towel. 'Here you go m'love,' he wrapped it around her. Her curls had regained their natural fluffiness and her skin looked a lot better with all the mud and blood. And best of all her face, well it was always beautiful, but it was even more so when she was happy. He loved her more than she would ever know. He picked her up again only this time she let out a small squeal of giggles. He carried her to the bedroom, where he draped her dressing gown over her body. He did the same to himself, after removing his trousers and shoes. 'Where would you feel more comfortable?' he asked her.

'Anywhere that you are near,' she actually talked in an hour. He breathed a sigh of relief. river was more like his river now. He laid down and gestured for her to join him. She agreed and laid on his chest. 'Are you okay now.'

'A lot better after everything you've done for me,' she traced gallifreyan words onto his torso. He smiled gently and smoothed her hair.

'Do you mind me asking what happened?'

'Not at all honey,' she took a deep breath 'I was wandering about a hotel. It was kind of eerie because there was nobody there. Then you appeared.'

'Me!'

'Yeah. But you were a doppelgänger. That whole hotel thing was a trap that Kovarian devised to kidnap me.'

'Why did she kidnap you?'

'To make me suffer, because I failed killing you. Yeah, they found out.'

'How long were they torturing you?'

'A few days I think.'

'River that's awful!' He gasped 'I should've been there before then.'

'You did your best,' he noticed she stopped tracing circles to look up at him 'how did you know I was tortured?'

He smoothed her cheek lovingly but se shook her head. 'Doctor how long were you there today.'

'I heard that,' he gestured to her arm 'happen.'

'Oh, no!' She turned away her head. He pulled it back to face him. Her eyes were filled with tears. 'River don't cry!'

'I didn't want you to hear my screaming. I know how emotions effect you.'

'You must have been In a lot of pain to scream that loud.'

'I was...' She was silenced by a kiss. A passionate kiss coming from the doctor. He was a very good kisser it was just sometimes, he needed to be encouraged.

'What other things did they do to you?'

'Starved me, whipped, beaten, left me sleep on ice, pulled my hair, made me watch gangers of you getting killed, ... Tormented me saying that you didn't love me,' she wanted to tell him everything

'Cut me, kicked me, made me sick, pushed me into freezing water, made memories come back that weren't meant to come back,' she had reached breaking point. She began to sob uncontrollably. And the doctor kept her safe again. He pulled her onto his lap, and stroked her hair. He whispered something to her in gallifreyan that meant 'I love you more than every star in the sky'.

She smiled faintly and buried her head into his chest. 'Can I sleep with you?' She heard him ask.

'Yes,' she croaked and he pulled her down 'just stay with me.'

'Always,' he whispered kissing her head. And he vowed that as his eyes dropped closed for the first time since his wife had left before. Now she was back in his arms, he could keep her safe and never let anyone hurt her. She was his river and one thing was for sure; whenever she needed him he would always provide a rescue.


End file.
